Following the steps of MacaroNight I (2018-2019), MacaroNight II aimed at showcasing the research made in the region of Macaronesia to young adults, teenagers and families in order to spearhead the next generation of researchers in the islands.
Undoubtedly, 2020 has been marked by unexpected challenges which the consortium has been able to transform into opportunities. During the kick-off, it was decided to have a physical event with hygienic measures and crowd control, which would lower the attendance but not damage the impact on the participants. Unfortunately, the increase in Covid cases has meant that there was a conscious decision to change the format. In an attempt to complement each other and facilitate a working method that was, at this point, new to all the partners, certain considerations were made, such as using each partner’s previous knowledge and institutional strengths.
As the rest of the world, MACARONIGHT II saw every aspect of their plans repeatedly disrupted due to the pandemic and the evolution -and in some cases devolution- of the safety measures. Nonetheless, even having to monitor and adapt to four different situations (measures in Portugal and Spain were different per province, meaning four provinces: Las Palmas, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Madeira, Açores) the Consortium has shown remarkable flexibility and creativity dealing with changes and new formats.
WP1
During 2021, it was decided to create a Portuguese language Facebook and Instagram profiles to better reach all the population in their own language.
Main tasks undertaken: preparation of the project communication plan, specific communication guidelines for internal and external communication, audiovisual promotional material, posters, leaflets, agendas, animations etc;
Main results:
Creation of Portuguese Instagram and Facebook profiles
In total app 168000 people were made aware of the night via the awareness campaign;
5.753 pageviews at the event website;
700 followers on Facebook (SP);
935 followers on Facebook (PT);
300 followers on Instagram (SP);
325 followers on Instagram (PT);
1571 followers on Twitter;
13 videos on YouTube;
6 radio interviews conducted;
7 podcast collaborations
2 TV ad run in prime time in regional TV;
2 appearances on national/regional TV channels before the event;
1959 Pre-events attendants;
1144 Post- events attendants;
WP2
The NIGHT 2021 was organised in sixteen islands thanks to the online resources and live online events.
Main results
40869 participants in almost all islands of the Macaronesian archipelago.
24 stands, 31 hands-on experiments, 5 contests, 82 live talks, 59 science videos, 7 lab virtual walks, 8 TV show episodes.
40 different entities collaborated with the project, 214 researchers and 52 schools participated;
The online EU Corner was composed of 24 EU projects, 1 original online game, 14 EU games and 2 games created by EU projects;
WP3
Tasks undertaken: preparation of guidelines for data collection and training of volunteers and related questionnaires/QR surveys and the evaluation of the data. Due to the online nature of the event, it was extremely difficult motivating attendants to answer questionnaires.
In total:
151 questionnaires on schools (12 to 18 years old)
34 questionnaires for attending adults.
Main results:
Even though a lot of comments centered on recuperating the physical event for 2021, the online nature of the event was actually praised by those schools situated on rural areas, which is a feature that will be kept for future editions of Macaronight.
